Analysis Of Many Thousands Gone By Ira Berlin

Ira Berlin’s book Many Thousands Gone, The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America tells the story of evolution in the African American society through the early seventeenth century all the way through the American Revolution. Berlin shows the transformation that occurred as the first generations of creole slaves who worked alongside their owners, free blacks, and enslaved whites gave way to the plantation generations, whose back-breaking labor was the sole engine of their society and whose physical and verbal isolation sustained African traditions on American soil. As the nature of the slaves’ labor changed with place and time, so did the relationship between slave and master, and between slave and society. Berlin demonstrates that the meaning of slavery and of race itself was continually renegotiated and redefined, as the nation lurched toward political and economic independence and tackled with the Enlightenment …show more content…
Berlin begins the book by shutting down the image of how slavery is thought of today and restoring the image of slaves into the history of the American working class and into the upbringing of our nation. Slaves went from having some sort of freedom or independence rather, to becoming dehumanized in the worst possible ways. Berlin shows readers the timeline of slavery and how it evolved up until the point of how todays society pictures and categorizes slavery. In Many Thousands Gone Ira Berlin attempts to show readers how the meanings of slavery, race, freedom and liberty have changed over the Charter, Plantation and Revolution time periods. Berlin reveals the diverse transformation that occurred in the four major regions The North, Chesapeake, the Low country and the Mississippi valley. Many Thousands Gone lets readers in on the rules regarding the limits of slavery and how it varied enormously within the regions and between the